A few months back I decided to change the way I rate movie reviews. Previously I used the old standard of assigning a letter grade to a movie. I then moved to a liked it slash didn’t like it scale. I didn’t find much flexibility in that rating system. Now, I’m moving the real-world scale I use when asked about a movie. The scale, which I am sure is used elsewhere, is based on how much you are willing to pay to see a movie. The scale is as follows:

  • Full Admission - Willing to pay for a full-price theater ticket, especially on a crowded Friday night.
  • Matinee - Must see the movie in a theater, but do it as cheap as possible.
  • Rental (DVD, Blu-ray, whatever media you choose) - See it right when it hits the retail market.
  • Cable TV - You can wait until it shows up on cable to watch.

I’m sure there are other ratings that can be placed in there (e.g. cheap theaters, broadcast television) but I don’t find those ideal situations to watch most movies. Plus I don’t have a cheap theater near me and broadcast television has too many commercials to suffer through. Here are a few samples of movies I’ve reviewed and how I would rate them on this new scale:

  • Full Admission - 300, The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Juno
  • Matinee - Quantum of Solace, Grand Torino, Knocked Up
  • Rental - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Transformers
  • Cable TV - Nights in Rodanthe, Spider-Man 3

Let’s see how this scale works for me.